Ancestry

[Vin]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to look for something more suitable in the sub-forums towards the bottom of the site, but I noticed there hasn't really been a super amount of activity down there in the interest or lifestyle categories, so I figured this would count as chit chat.

Recently (a few months ago), I started trying to track my genealogy and built a family tree on ancestry.com (with the help of a few free trials). Does anyone have any experience or interest in this topic? Because I'd love to hear of any websites/experiences you looked into or built trees on. It's tricky trying to maneuver around and build an informative, complex tree without spending a lot of money.

[Sylph]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to look for something more suitable in the sub-forums towards the bottom of the site, but I noticed there hasn't really been a super amount of activity down there in the interest or lifestyle categories, so I figured this would count as chit chat.

Recently (a few months ago), I started trying to track my genealogy and built a family tree on ancestry.com (with the help of a few free trials). Does anyone have any experience or interest in this topic? Because I'd love to hear of any websites/experiences you looked into or built trees on. It's tricky trying to maneuver around and build an informative, complex tree without spending a lot of money.

Well unfortunately, I never really had to use Websites or anything like that; Here on my island, Family lineage and history in passed on verbally (sometimes whether you asked for it or not LoL); So my only suggestion would be, is to ask your elders or someone with some sort of history on your family? Like a local Archive perhaps?


Tho, We tend to not focus so much on "who we were", because as Bermudians now;

We just inherently know our people mainly comprise of African, Amerindian, a lil Spanish/Portuguese and British ethnicities and we tend to just go with "I'm a Bermudian".

Tho mind you; I do know for me; My familial Roots trace back to Sicily, Italy and From various other Islands in the Caribbean, so for the most part I'm content in knowing I atleast have a reason for being so wild (inside Joke )


But yeah; I know to Americans and some Europeans, it seems to be important to know exactly who your family was; As I notice a lot of Americans say:

"I'm 5th Generation Irish/ 7th Generation German/etc"

So it may be wise to just to seek council with one of your elders perhaps?

[starlight]

Never used them sites but i know i have a few interesting people in my family lol so well to do and high up people!

It would be great to trace back though, just them sites worry me.

[Vin]

Well unfortunately, I never really had to use Websites or anything like that; Here on my island, Family lineage and history in passed on verbally (sometimes whether you asked for it or not LoL); So my only suggestion would be, is to ask your elders or someone with some sort of history on your family? Like a local Archive perhaps?
Tho, We tend to not focus so much on "who we were", because as Bermudians now;
We just inherently know our people mainly comprise of African, Amerindian, a lil Spanish/Portuguese and British ethnicities and we tend to just go with "I'm a Bermudian".
Tho mind you; I do know for me; My familial Roots trace back to Sicily, Italy and From various other Islands in the Caribbean, so for the most part I'm content in knowing I atleast have a reason for being so wild (inside Joke :
But yeah; I know to Americans and some Europeans, it seems to be important to know exactly who your family was; As I notice a lot of Americans say:
"I'm 5th Generation Irish/ 7th Generation German/etc"
So it may be wise to just to seek council with one of your elders perhaps?

That's really cool that you're able to have that kind of resource at your disposal. I guess that is an option for some of us, but for me personally it isn't so much. I come from a small family and only one grandparent of mine is still living, so I don't really get a lot of information from her outside of confirmations sometimes. I will say that a lot of my research was kickstarted by her and her sister though because they have an old family Bible with a few generations going up from them, which allowed me to take it further. Ultimately though, I ended up finding out more than they even knew.

I also find it interesting what you're saying about your identity as a Bermudian. And you're right, in America, some of us really are interested in identifying with our ancestry (I'm guilty of that). Even though there is assimilation to a degree, a lot of cultural and ethnic identities do carry over.

[Vin]

Never used them sites but i know i have a few interesting people in my family lol so well to do and high up people!
It would be great to trace back though, just them sites worry me.

I guess they can be a little intimidating and I think what has helped me as that I try to be skeptical with every person and every branch. It's not an exact science, but I think in most cases you get out of it what you put in. There are a lot of "hints" and information you'll find out that don't even match, so it's about patience and sorting through that.

Perhaps different countries have sites that are more suited to their genealogy. I really love ancestry.com and I was able to access so many great, useful documents. However, when I tried to help my boyfriend make a tree and expand it, there was barely anything for him (he's Canadian). Going back to the conversation I was having with [MENTION=15656]Sylph[/MENTION] I think people in the US are more interested in their lineage than some might. Like with you, you are from Europe and I'm trying to track my family back to there. I guess since we're a nation built around immigrants, it can be more popular and maybe why the US has access to more, better documents. Even though at the same time, I'm fortunate because majority of my family came through NYC, a place where the documents are much more abundant and helpful. Sorry if this kind of just turned into a ramble towards the end lol

[meridannight]

....couldn't resist.

[starlight]

I guess they can be a little intimidating and I think what has helped me as that I try to be skeptical with every person and every branch. It's not an exact science, but I think in most cases you get out of it what you put in. There are a lot of "hints" and information you'll find out that don't even match, so it's about patience and sorting through that.

Perhaps different countries have sites that are more suited to their genealogy. I really love ancestry.com and I was able to access so many great, useful documents. However, when I tried to help my boyfriend make a tree and expand it, there was barely anything for him (he's Canadian). Going back to the conversation I was having with [MENTION=15656]Sylph[/MENTION] I think people in the US are more interested in their lineage than some might. Like with you, you are from Europe and I'm trying to track my family back to there. I guess since we're a nation built around immigrants, it can be more popular and maybe why the US has access to more, better documents. Even though at the same time, I'm fortunate because majority of my family came through NYC, a place where the documents are much more abundant and helpful. Sorry if this kind of just turned into a ramble towards the end lol

It wasnt a ramble lol

I think its good that your looking, i get the impression alot about people in the USA want to trace their lineage back.

[ceez]

This is something I wanted to get into too. So far I learned most of my ancestors were African and Native American but I have a great grandmother on my mothers side and a grandfather on my fathers side that for some reason no one knows for sure what they were. I've actually been thinking about doing one of those mail in dna test to see what I find out, my dad told me our last name was Scottish so now I'm curios of what else is in our family.

[Vin]

This is something I wanted to get into too. So far I learned most of my ancestors were African and Native American but I have a great grandmother on my mothers side and a grandfather on my fathers side that for some reason no one knows for sure what they were. I've actually been thinking about doing one of those mail in dna test to see what I find out, my dad told me our last name was Scottish so now I'm curios of what else is in our family.

Oh wow, that's really interesting. I actually just sent in my ancestry.com DNA test today. When I was looking into my family tree, I traced myself to countries I didn't even know about, so I figured I'd try to look into what else it could tell me about my lineage.

[Vin]

If anyone's interested, I got my results back for the DNA. Nothing too shocking, but it's still cool:
29% Italian/Greek
26% England/Wales/Scotland
17% European West (Germany/France)
13% Irish
6% Caucasus
5% European Jewish
2% Northern Africa
1% Middle Eastern
1% European East

They say it's not always 100% accurate, but it's still interesting. I knew going in my largest ethnic backgrounds are Italian and English, so they didn't just pull the stats out of thin air. It also helped confirm some family tree questions I had through cousin confirmations. So all and all, I think it was money well spent.